Political Quotes

“Mr. Castro, put your leadership to the test of the ballot box, and let your people decide. Call off your secret police, and let the Cuban people choose their leaders and their future. Let your people live in freedom. That is the message to Cuba today. You know, when Cuba is free, a million free Cuban Americans will be united with their long-suffering Cuban brothers. Nowhere has the pain and anguish of family separation been more eloquently stated than in a letter that Barbara received from Major Orestes Lorenzo, who is with us here today. Where is the major? Right here. As all of you know, he heroically escaped from Cuba when he flew his Mig to south Florida a year and a half ago, asked for political asylum. But he could not free his family. Despite humanitarian pleas from the world over, Castro keeps Vicky, Major Lorenzo's wife, and their two little sons, Alexander and Reyniel, hostage there in Cuba. I want to say to the major here today and to all of you that I will keep working until all Cuban families are united again in freedom. You know, Castro likes to say that any person who wants to leave Cuba may go. Well, all it takes, he says, is an American visa. Well, over a year ago we issued a visa for the major's family, and still they're barred from leaving that country. The answer is today to Mr. Castro: Do what's decent. Do what's right. You say everybody can leave; let the Lorenzo family go. One cannot help but be emotional, looking around this room and seeing the commitment here. I get it in a very special way, obviously, through my son Jeb, who's a friend to many here, and through my dear friend Armando Codina who introduced me, who sensitizes me to this struggle that everyone in this room has been involved in. We've been in this, and I say ``we'' proudly, we've been in this for a long time, and we are not going to back away from this commitment. We're not going to listen to these editorials that tell me how to run the foreign policy of this country and to change this policy. Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!”